Violent punishment at home: How to help parents stop it? Alaka Holla August 12, 2026 This page in: English

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/investinpeople/violent-punishment-at-home-how-to-help-parents-stop-it Most parents who hit their children don't believe it works. That is a striking finding to emerge from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), a global data collection effort covering dozens of low- and middle-income countries. When caregivers are asked whether violent punishment - shaking, spanking, hitting with a hard object, or beating with an implement - is necessary to raise a child properly, most disagree. Yet across low- and middle-income countries, the same parents report that 60 percent of children aged 1-14 experience violent punishment at home. The gap between what parents believe and what they do is not a moral failure. It is a policy problem - and one we know how to solve.